Fans Comment
Rob Walker

A sad reflection
14 December 2004

David Moyes: his side's achievements are the real success story of this season but Everton are still under-estimated.

What about the odds on Everton winning the Premiership, 150-1, and yet we are nearly halfway through the season and placed second?

So why is this? Is it just ignorance on the part of the media, or a genuine belief based on an footballing analysis of the Everton team, or is it something else?

Well I think it is something else, something which is a much sadder reflection of the state of the game in this country. It is the self interests of what I will call the 'alliance' between, on the one hand, the financially big football clubs and on the other, the media corporations who rely on our game to make their money. This alliance works to undermine any threat that may weaken its control over the game and its powers to influence its supporters.

I think Everton's success so far this season is opening my eyes to what has been going on in football since Sky have taken over our game. Football is no longer about the team that can win the most games, its about the teams with the best marketing potential, the teams with supporters who can be most easily manipulated to feed this alliance's consumerism ethos of making money out of their 'customers'. Teams now must have a global marketing appeal, a brand and very importantly the celebrity players that will help them sustain their brand. Anything that weakens these footballing brands will weaken the control of this alliance which is financially reliant on the game.

Just take the recent phenomenan of the celebrity footballer. This creation of the media, with the full support of the big football clubs, fulfils two key business objectives for the alliance. Firstly it enables the media to fulfil their own need to create a media market for articles, or TV programmes, about the celebrities. Secondly it raises the profile and reinforces the brands of the big clubs, enabling them to market their brand more effectively to consumers and generate more profit for their shareholders. This alliance of big club/media allows both parties to strengthen there financial control over the game and influence their customers, that is, supporters, behaviour. Hence you can get 150-1 on the team that is second in the league to win the league.

Now God help anything or anybody that comes in the way of this efficient market alliance, it needs to be crushed just, as any other business competitor.

This time around it happens to be Everton who are currently pissing on the alliance's parade. Can you image what would happen if we actually won the league? I know it is a long shot but it could happen. Well I can see it now, if we did win it then the media would rally around their cash cow partner - the 'big clubs' - and proclaim Everton's triumph was a 'one off', it could 'never happen again' and it would have been 'down to luck' because 'they had no injuries' were 'defensive', 'boring', 'unattractive' maybe even 'lucky'. In fact just like the medai reaction to Greece winning Euro 2004. It just doesn't fit with the business plans of the big club/media alliance that a team should be able to win the premiership by simply being the best TEAM, as opposed to a team that also contains the most high paid, high profile celebrity football stars.

It would be bad for business. It would undermine all the brainwashing that the big club/media alliance has been spewing for its own self interest. It could make the big clubs who have spent 10 even 100's of £ millions look a little stupid and the media who feed off them equally stupid. Their precious big club brand could be damaged and this would be very serious to their mutual buisness alliance.

But they will never allow this to happen, the media partner of the alliance will make sure of that by putting the appropriate spin on any such Everton triumph. We are already seeing the first stage in this business strategy, with the majority of the media down playing, Everton's current success, you see it just doesn't fit with their model, so they can not allow it to develop?

What has our game become? Give it back to the real supporters who recognise and give credit when credit is due to even their biggest football rivals, out or a sense of passion and respect for the game, as opposed to a passion for making corporate profits.

Rob Walker